Learning, Rural Areas and GenAI Tools

Authors

  • John Traxler

    Avallain AG, 9000 St Gallen, Switzerland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i12.9637
Received: 22 April 2025 | Revised: 2 July 2025 | Accepted: 3 July 2025 | Published Online: 13 November 2025

Abstract

Artificial intelligence, AI, specifically the 'intelligent' chatbots exemplified by chapGPT accessing the raw power of Large Language Models, the underlying GenAI technology, such as OpenAI, offers a variety of ways to support teachers. This raw power can however be problematic. Large Language Models can 'hallucinate' , providing plausible but fictitious information, furthermore, they require considerable skill in drafting queries that give the precise answer required, the so-called engineering of 'prompts' , and lastly, they could provide responses that are dangerous, hurtful or harmful. These are all consequences of the underlying technology, which indiscriminately harvests and recycles the world's digital resources, good or bad, right or wrong, nice or nasty. The educational use of GenAI in rural areas offers possibilities and poses problems, some of which are already implicit in existing rural digital educational provision, objective factors like sparsity, infrastructure and distance, and to cultural factors like the dominance of urban mindsets and understandings. Others are a direct consequence of the nature of GenAI itself. Tools that manage this power and deliver convenient and safe services to educational users can mitigate or eliminate these problems. Teachermatic is one such tool and is critiqued in terms of its rural educational relevance. This introductory and exploratory paper outlines the underlying technical, pedagogic, cultural and ethical challenges of educational AI in rural contexts and reports briefly on trials and workshops with teachers. There is no quick fix or easy answer. The problems of education in rural areas are not obviously or simply ones that GenAI can fix, in fact without supportive policy and resources to focus the direction and deployment of GenAI, it might merely reinforce existing barriers and inequalities.

Keywords:

Large Language Models; Rural Areas; Chatbots; Artificial Intelligence; Skills

References

[1] Buchanan, B.G., 2005. A (very) brief history of artificial intelligence. AI Magazine. 26(4), 53–60.

[2] Cordeschi, R., 2007. AI Turns Fifty: Revisiting Its Origins. Applied Artificial Intelligence. 21(4–5), 259–279. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08839510701252304

[3] Toosi, A., Bottino, A.G., Saboury, B., et al., 2021. A brief history of AI: how to prevent another winter (a critical review). PET Clinics. 16(4), 449–469.

[4] Haenlein, M., Kaplan, A., 2019. A brief history of artificial intelligence: On the past, present, and future of artificial intelligence. California Management Review. 61(4), 5–14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0008125619864925

[5] Groumpos, P.P., 2023. A critical historic overview of artificial intelligence: issues, challenges, opportunities, and threats. In Artificial Intelligence and Applications.1(4), 1181–1197.

[6] Sengar, S.S., Hasan, A.B., Kumar, S., et al., 2024. Generative artificial intelligence: a systematic review. California Management Review, 84, 23661–23700. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-024-20016-1

[7] Williamson, B., Eynon, R., 2020. Historical threads, missing links, and future directions in AI in education. Learning, Media and Technology. 45(3), 223–235. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2020.1798995

[8] Dam, S.K., Hong, C.S., Qiao, Y., et al., 2024. A complete survey on LLM-based AI chatbots. arXiv:2406.16937. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2406.16937

[9] Andersson, H., 2024. Retrieval-Augmented Generation With Azure OpenAI [Bachelor’s Thesis]. Mälardalen University: Västerås, Sweden. Available from: https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-67686 (cited 1 April 2025).

[10] Ayyamperumal, S.G., Ge, L., 2024. Current state of LLM Risks and AI Guardrails. arXiv:2406.12934. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2406.12934

[11] Ye, H., Liu, T., Zhang, A., et al., 2023. Cognitive mirage: A review of hallucinations in large language models. arXiv:2309.06794. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2309.06794

[12] Zhang, M., Press, O., Merrill, W., et al., 2023. How language model hallucinations can snowball. arXiv:2305.13534. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2305.13534

[13] Gabriel, I., 2020. Artificial intelligence, values, and alignment. Minds and Machines. 30(3), 411–437.

[14] Bozkurt, A., Sharma, R.C., 2023. Generative AI and prompt engineering: The art of whispering to let the genie out of the algorithmic world. Asian Journal of Distance Education. 18(2), i–vii.

[15] Cain, W., 2024. Prompting Change: Exploring Prompt Engineering in Large Language Model AI and Its Potential to Transform Education. TechTrends. 68, 47–57. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-023-00896-0

[16] Morales Romo, N., 2016. Rural Schools in Spain. Past, present and future: a sociological framework. Available from: https://gredos.usal.es/bitstream/handle/10366/128103/Ruralschools.pdf;jsessionid=610E0BAFE7D21D74EEFA0AB62D56A978?sequence=1 (cited 1 April 2025).

[17] Sorensen, T., Moore, J., Fisher, J., et al., 2024. A roadmap to pluralistic alignment. arXiv:2402.05070. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2402.05070

[18] Marquis, Y.A., Oladoyinbo, T.O., Olabanji, S.O., et al., 2024. Proliferation of AI tools: A multifaceted evaluation of user perceptions and emerging trends. Asian Journal of Advanced Research and Reports. 18(1), 30–35.

[19] Ponte, D., Mierzejewska, B.I., Klein, S., 2017. The transformation of the academic publishing market: multiple perspectives on innovation. Electronic Markets. 27, 97–100.

[20] Gillwald, A., 2017. Chapter Two: Beyond Access: Addressing Digital Inequality in Africa. In: The Shifting Geopolitics of Internet Access: From Broadband and Net Neutrality to Zero-Rating. Centre for International Governance Innovation: Waterloo, ON, Canada. pp. 37–54. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep05240.7?seq=18 (cited 1 April 2025).

[21] Lutz, C., 2019. Digital Inequalities in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies. 1(2), 141–148. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.140

[22] Berthelot, A., Caron, E., Jay, M., et al., 2025. Understanding the environmental impact of generative AI services. Communications of the ACM. Special Issue on Sustainability and Computing. 68(7), 46–53. Available from: https://hal.science/hal-04920612v1/document (cited 1 April 2025).

[23] Duarte, R., García-Riazuelo, Á., Sáez, L.A., et al., 2022. Analysing citizens’ perceptions of renewable energies in rural areas: A case study on wind farms in Spain. Energy Reports. 8, 12822–12831.

[24] Mérida-Rodríguez, M., Reyes-Corredera, S., Pardo-García, S., et al., 2015. Solar Photovoltaic Power in Spain: Expansion Factors and Emerging Landscapes. In: Renewable Energies and European Landscapes: Lessons from Southern European Cases. Springer: Dordrecht, Netherlands. pp. 63–80. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9843-3_4

[25] You, J., 2025. How much energy does ChatGPT use? Gradient Updates. Available from: https://epoch.ai/gradient-updates/how-much-energy-does-chatgpt-use (cited 1 April 2025).

[26] Kwet, M., 2019. Digital colonialism: US empire and the new imperialism in the Global South. Race & Class. 60(4), 3–26.

[27] Salami, A.O., 2024. Artificial intelligence, digital colonialism, and the implications for Africa’s future development. Data & Policy. 6, e67. Available from: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/4BD73E9129A9CD9E9301C61CB2401450/S2632324924000750a.pdf/artificial_intelligence_digital_colonialism_and_the_implications_for_africas_future_development.pdf (cited 1 April 2025).

[28] Rowe, N., 2023. ‘It’s destroyed me completely’: Kenyan moderators decry toll of training of AI models. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/aug/02/ai-chatbot-training-human-toll-content-moderator-meta-openai (cited 1 April 2025).

[29] Beetham, H.A., 2025. Marking the Government's homework on public sector AI. Available from: https://helenbeetham.substack.com/p/marking-the-governments-homework (cited 1 April 2025).

[30] Martin, A., 2006. A European framework for digital literacy. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy. 1(2), 151–161.

[31] Sun, M., Liu, J., Lu, J., 2024. Digital Literacy in Africa: Exploring its Relationship with Infrastructure, Policy, and Social Inequality. African Journalism Studies. 44(3), 204–225. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23743670.2024.2329705

[32] Hinrichsen, J., Coombs, A., 2014. The five resources of critical digital literacy: a framework for curriculum integration. Research in Learning Technology. 21, 21334. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v21.21334

[33] Long, D., Magerko, B., 2020. What is AI literacy? Competencies and design considerations. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Honolulu, HI, USA, 25–30 April 2020; pp. 1–16. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376727

[34] Luitse, D., Denkena, W., 2021. The great transformer: Examining the role of large language models in the political economy of AI. Big Data & Society. 8(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211047734

[35] Su, J., Ng, D.T.K., Chu, S.K.W., 2023. Artificial intelligence (AI) literacy in early childhood education: The challenges and opportunities. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence. 4, 100124. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2023.100124

[36] Casal-Otero, L., Catala, A., Fernández-Morante, C., et al., 2023. AI literacy in K-12: a systematic literature review. International Journal of STEM Education. 10(1), 29.

[37] European Commission, 2022. Ethical guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and data in teaching and learning for educators. Available from: https://education.ec.europa.eu/news/ethical-guidelines-on-the-use-of-artificial-intelligence-and-data-in-teaching-and-learning-for-educators (cited 1 April 2025).

[38] Avallain, 2025. About Avallain. Available from: https://www.avallain.com/company/about (cited 1 April 2025).

[39] Redondo-Duarte, S., Ruiz-Lázaro, J., Martínez Requejo, S., et al., 2024. Didactic Strategies for the Use of AI in the Classroom in Higher Education. In: Arinushkina, A. (Ed.). Integration Strategies of Generative AI in Higher Education. IGI Global Scientific Publishing: Hershey, PA, USA. pp. 23–50. DOI: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/115082

[40] Ertmer, P.A., Newby, T.J., 2013. Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly. 26(2), 43–71.

[41] Mattar, J., 2018. Constructivism and connectivism in education technology: Active, situated, authentic, experiential, and anchored learning. RIED-Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia. 21(2), 201–217.

[42] Pratschke, B.M., 2024. Generativism. In: Generative AI and Education: Digital Pedagogies, Teaching Innovation and Learning Design. Springer: Cham, Switzerland. pp. 57–72.

[43] Tan, S.C., Voogt, J., Tan, L., 2024. Introduction to digital pedagogy: a proposed framework for design and enactment. Pedagogies: An International Journal. 19(3), 327–336.

[44] Gillon, R., 2003. Four scenarios. Journal of Medical Ethics. 29, 267–268. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.29.5.267

[45] Herodotou, C., Sharples, M., Gaved, M., et al., 2019. Innovative pedagogies of the future: An evidence-based selection. Frontiers in Education. 4, 113. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2019.00113

[46] Hughes, J., 2021. The Deskilling of Teaching and the Case for Intelligent Tutoring Systems. Journal of Ethics and Emerging Technologies. 31(2), 1–16.

[47] Hutson, J., 2024. Rethinking Plagiarism in the Era of Generative AI. Journal of Intelligent Communication. 4(1), 20–31.

[48] Sharples, M., 2022. Automated essay writing: An AIED opinion. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education. 32(4), 1119–1126.

[49] Jones, K.S., 2007. Automatic summarising: The state of the art. Information Processing & Management. 43(6), 1449–1481.

[50] Green, C., Mynhier, L., Banfill, J., 2020. Preparing education for the crises of tomorrow: A framework for adaptability. International Review of Education. 66, 857–879. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-020-09878-3

[51] Pinilla, V., Ayuda, M.I., Sáez, L.A., 2008. Rural depopulation and the migration turnaround in Mediterranean Western Europe: a case study of Aragon. Journal of Rural and Community Development. 3(1). Available from: https://journals.brandonu.ca/jrcd/article/view/91/33

[52] Viñas, C.D., 2019. Depopulation processes in European rural areas: A case study of Cantabria (Spain). European Countryside. 11(3), 341–369.

[53] Czubala Ostapiuk, M.R., Puente Regidor, M., Corullón Hermosa, C.C., 2022. Rural depopulation in Spain: next generation EU as a stimulus to accelerate the transformation. Journal of Liberty and International Affairs. 8(1), 211–228. DOI: https://doi.org/10.47305/JLIA2281211co

[54] Moliner, E.C., Bosque, M.I.A., 2023. Rural migration and agricultural modernization: an analysis of provincial Spain during its great rural exodus, 1960–1981. Historia Agraria: Revista de Agricultura e Historia Rural. (90), 223–255.

[55] Arnalte, E., Ortiz, D., 2003. Some trends of Spanish agriculture. Difficulties to implement a Rural Development model based on the multifunctionality of agriculture. In Proceedings of the Policies, Governance and Innovation for Rural Areas" International Seminar, Arcavacata di Rende, Italy, 21–23 November 2003. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dionisio-Miranda-2/publication/228420409_Some_trends_of_Spanish_agriculture_Difficulties_to_implement_a_Rural_Development_model_based_on_the_multifunctionality_of_agriculture/links/00b7d5368961f6936c000000/Some-trends-of-Spanish-agriculture-Difficulties-to-implement-a-Rural-Development-model-based-on-the-multifunctionality-of-agriculture.pdf (cited 1 April 2025).

[56] Barke, M., 2004. Rural tourism in Spain. International Journal of Tourism Research. 6(3), 137–149.

[57] Trechera Herreros, J.L., Morales Fernández, E., 2012. Rural tourism as an alternative to the development for rural areas and the creation of employment. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science. 2(20), 162–174.

[58] Cuadrado-Ciuraneta, S., Durà-Guimerà, A., Salvati, L., 2017. Not only tourism: Unravelling suburbanization, second-home expansion and “rural” sprawl in Catalonia, Spain. Urban Geography. 38(1), 66–89.

[59] Ando, M., 2013. Estimating the effects of nuclear power facilities on local income levels: A quasi-experimental approach. Department of Economics Working Paper. No. 2013:3. Available from: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2365084_code1551782.pdf?abstractid=2365084&mirid=1 (cited 1 April 2025).

[60] Maddah, L.S., Arauzo-Carod, J.M., 2025. Cultural and creative industries and employment growth in urban and rural Catalonia. Regional Studies. 1–21. Available from: https://interaccio.diba.cat/sites/interaccio.diba.cat/files/cultural_and_creative_industries_and_employment_growth_in_urban_and_rural_catalonia.pdf

[61] Roberts, E., Townsend, L., 2016. The contribution of the creative economy to the resilience of rural communities: exploring cultural and digital capital. Sociologia Ruralis. 56(2), 197–219.

[62] Egidi, G., Quaranta, G., Salvati, L., 2020. Unraveling causes and consequences of international retirement migration to coastal and rural areas in Mediterranean Europe. Land. 9(11), 410.

[63] Fargas-Malet, M., Bagley, C., 2022. Is small beautiful? A scoping review of 21st-century research on small rural schools in Europe. European Educational Research Journal. 21(5), 822–844.

[64] Callejo-González, J.J., Ruiz-Herrero, J.A., 2024. Factors influencing the decision of young adults to remain in their rural environment: Social origin, education and gender. Journal of Rural Studies. 106, 103206. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103206

[65] Ortega-Reig, M., Schürmann, C., Ferrandis Martínez, A., 2023. Measuring access to services of general interest as a diagnostic tool to identify well-being disparities between rural areas in Europe. Land. 12(5), 1049. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/land12051049

[66] Černič Istenič, M., 2023. Social Dimension of Rural Areas. Available from: https://zenodo.org/records/7807982/files/SHERPA-Position-Paper-Social%20Dimension%20of%20Rural%20Areas.pdf?download=1 (cited 1 April 2025).

[67] Traxler, J., 2011. Context in a wider context. MedienPädagogik: Zeitschrift für Theorie und Praxis der Medienbildung. 19, 1–16.

[68] Zambrano, J., Ramirez, E., Orrego, T., 2019. Possibilities of mobile learning in rural contexts. In: World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning, 110–117. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21125/edulearn.2019.2555

[69] Kukulska-Hulme, A., Sharples, M., 2009. Mobile and contextual learning. Special issue of Association for Learning Technology Journal (ALT-J), Research in Learning Technology. 17(3), 159–160.

[70] Subrahmanyam, G., 2020. UNESCO-UNEVOC Study on the Trends Shaping the Future of TVET Teaching. UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Bonn, Germany. pp. 1–40.

[71] Corbin, T., Deranty, J.P., Duke-Yonge, J., et al., 2025. We Need to Talk about GenAI Grading and Tutoring Systems. American Association of Philosophy Teachers Studies in Pedagogy. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/aaptstudies2025417101

[72] Gretton, G., Lea, S., 2024. Scheme Planning, Artificial Intelligence and Student Teachers: A Cautionary Tale. Reaching into Research. 3(3), 18–26.

[73] Karakose, T., 2024. Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) make the school principal redundant? A preliminary discussion and future prospects. Educational Process: International Journal (EDUPIJ). 13(2), 7–14.

Downloads

How to Cite

Traxler, J. (2025). Learning, Rural Areas and GenAI Tools. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(12), 1019–1029. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i12.9637

Issue

Vol. 7 , Iss. 12 (December 2025): In progress

Article Type

Article

License

Copyright © 2025 John Traxler

Creative Commons License

This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.